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F5 Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: FFIV), the global leader in Application Delivery Networking, today announced that it has received SiriusDecisions’ Return On Integration Award for its success in aligning the efforts of the company’s global sales and marketing teams. The award was presented at the SiriusDecisions Summit 2011, held May 4–6 in Scottsdale, Ariz.

“As sales and marketing tools and technologies evolve, integrating complementary business functions poses significant challenges to organizations, which can in turn limit growth,” said SiriusDecisions’ Managing Director and co-founder, John Neeson. “Through alignment efforts at F5, the company was able to improve their collaborative processes and transform sales and marketing activities into a more cohesive whole. F5 has seen real benefits from their new and enhanced sales-focused programs, and we’re pleased to present them with our esteemed Return on Integration Award.”

Details

F5 earned the Return on Integration Award from SiriusDecisions, the world’s leading source for business-to-business sales and marketing best-practice research and data, for its demonstrated ability to:

Uniquely integrate sales and marketing processes

Develop an interdependent relationship between sales and marketing

Tightly align the goals of both functions

Strategically use advanced systems to support related functions

Measure results effectively

The award was presented following a keynote address delivered by F5 sales and marketing personnel, including Mark Anderson, SVP of Worldwide Sales; Dan Matte, SVP of Marketing and Business Development; Dave Janssen, VP of Sales Operations; and Kirby Wadsworth, VP of Global Marketing. Both the award announcement and presentation were part of the SiriusDecisions Summit 2011 conference, which focused on helping organizations achieve topline growth through B-to-B sales and marketing alignment.

In the company’s keynote presentation, F5 Networks outlined its three-year long project to more tightly integrate sales and marketing functions. F5 personnel discussed the key components that drove their success, including the success of specific demand management techniques. The presentation also emphasized the importance of marketing and sales operations within the sales cycle. Attendees were given practical guidance on how to roll out sales and marketing alignment efforts at their own organization, as well as helpful tips and potential pitfalls to beware.

“With the help of companies like SiriusDecisions, Salesforce.com, and Neolane, we’ve been able to streamline how our teams identify, qualify, and pursue sales opportunities,” said Dan Matte, SVP of Marketing and Business Development at F5. “By better understanding the interplay between different departments—including sales, marketing, channel, and services teams—we were also able to identify areas where new technologies would benefit the company, making it easier to track teams’ progress against targeted metrics and add valuable visibility throughout the sales cycle.”

About F5 Networks

F5 Networks, Inc., the global leader in Application Delivery Networking (ADN), helps the world’s largest enterprises and service providers realize the full value of virtualization, cloud computing, and on-demand IT. F5® solutions help integrate disparate technologies to provide greater control of the infrastructure, improve application delivery and data management, and give users seamless, secure, and accelerated access to applications from their corporate desktops and smart devices. An open architectural framework enables F5 customers to apply business policies at “strategic points of control” across the IT infrastructure and into the public cloud. F5 products give customers the agility they need to align IT with changing business conditions, deploy scalable solutions on demand, and manage mobile access to data and services. Enterprises, service and cloud providers, and leading online companies worldwide rely on F5 to optimize their IT investments and drive business forward. For more information, go to www.f5.com.

F5, the F5 logo, and F5 Networks are trademarks or service marks of F5 Networks, Inc., in the U.S. and other countries. All other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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